Kenyan Maize Faces Lethal Disease

Farmers in Kenya are facing difficulty and anxiety concerning growing new crops after a season of diseased soil affected their maize fields. This disease first appeared in 2011, when crop sources suffered a huge undertaking in eastern Africa. Maize is known as a staple food, placeholder for social standing, and economic growth factor on African farms.

The staple crop and form of food in many parts of Africa, maize was infected by two various different corn-related diseases in the soil, the end product being necrosis. This disease can leaves crop yields barren, but mostly leaves husks of maize infertile. However, the largest problem that farmers face is that these diseases are hard to identify visually

While the government is trying to encourage farmers to plant new crops for the season, farmers are reluctant to comply. The Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Felix Koskei spoke at a meeting in Nairobi's Kenyatta International Conference Center saying to the press, "I interviewed one farmer in Narok who told me that since he was born, he has been growing maize. And even if there's a problem, the farmer told me, he will have to plant maize so that people know he planted maize." With anxiety ridden farmers and a wary government, new soil is said to hopefully being distributed to farmers throughout Africa for the next planting season.